Susan Granger’s review of “STIFF UPPER LIPS” (Cowboy Booking International)
This parody of stuffy, austere, Edwardian-era costume dramas is almost as formulaic as the Merchant-Ivory genre it satirizes. In 1908 England, upper class inbreeding is definitely weakening the gene pool. The story revolves around Edward (Samuel West) who takes a fellow Cambridge undergrad, Cedric (Robert Portal) home to “Ivory’s End” to meet his tightly-corseted sister Emily (Georgina Cates), hoping it might be a suitable match. But Emily takes an instant dislike to Cedric who, in turn, has “strange feelings” for Edward. So Aunt Agnes (Prunella Scales) plans a diverting trip abroad, hoping that the exotic sights might inspire romance. That happens, of course, except not the way anyone plans when Emily leaps the line of class separation and falls in love with her lusty luggage-bearer (Sean Pertwee), declaring, “I want my sexual awakening, and I want it now!” Screenwriters Paul Simpkin and Gary Sinyor, augmented by Mr. Sinyor’s direction, spoof the steadfast British tradition of straight-backed, stoic acceptance of duty to class, school, and country – in that order. Their mocking, socially observant visual humor is amusing but not as clever as it could and should be. The primary problem lies with the fatal flaw of winking at the audience. Parody should be played absolutely straight, full out, with total conviction, rather than a smug, self-knowing smirk. Only Peter Ustinov, as a cranky, eccentric Indian tea plantation owner, and Frank Finlay, as the genteel family’s aging butler, achieve their poker-faced comedy objectives. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Stiff Upper Lips” is a flimsy 4. I’d advise waiting for the video and using it as a counter-culture antidote to a Merchant-Ivory film festival.
